


one way to love

by wonhao



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Running away from home, idk how to tag, jihoon is mean, not that angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 10:53:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15193223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonhao/pseuds/wonhao
Summary: it was wonwoo and jihoon against the world. that was up until he decided to leave.





	one way to love

**Author's Note:**

> hello here is another fic... i wrote this ages ago for another ship but decided to change it to wonhoon and post it so here we are. hope you like it !!

They had run away together when they were only eighteen, carrying with them only a handful of cash to last two or three days, a guitar, and a song that would bind them together. It wasn’t necessary a spontaneous decision to leave their homes. With the both of them coming from troubled families, it was only natural that they were drawn to each other. Living through the same tiring motion in the same quaint town, they knew everything the other felt, so it was only natural they knew what the other was thinking or feeling.

It was only natural to leave this forsaken town the moment Jihoon turned eighteen.

Hopping on a bus, Jihoon and Wonwoo sat down in the back, laughing about how unreal their life seemed at that moment.

“Play a song,” Wonwoo whispered, his head dropped on Jihoon’s shoulder as he felt his eyes becoming heavy.

“There are people around.”

“Since when did you care about others?”

Jihoon nodded his head in agreement, a toothy grin managed to pass for a moment before he turned a solemn gaze towards his beloved instrument. He played a sad song, hesitant at first, almost as if he was awaiting backlashes from the other passengers, but when he heard none, he continued more confidently.

Wonwoo’s soothing voice soon joined the gloomy melody, singing of broken dreams and lost paths. He opened his eyes briefly to look at the passengers in front of them, and he knew it was a song they could all relate to. He closed them again, singing and focusing all of his attention on the sounds from Jihoon’s guitar.

Twenty-two songs and five hours later, they arrived in Seoul with less money than before they had boarded the bus. Their dust-stained faces and ruffled hair distinguished them clearly from the chic city slickers, but being the young boys they were, their confidence knew no boundaries.

They had Jihoon’s guitar and Wonwoo’s voice, so what else did they need? This alone was enough to earn them the necessary money to survive, and for the next three years, they survived on doing just that: performing in the city square, doings gigs in clubs, and even performing at random events. It didn’t matter where they were just as long as they were making music together.

They were quite the duo, people would say. There was no one like them, bounded together so naturally, it seemed unreal, almost like a fairy tale.

For a while, it did seem like a fairy tale, or perhaps just a sweet dream.

Wonwoo wished they could have dreamt longer.

\---

After three years of living alone together, Wonwoo noticed a change in Jihoon’s behavior. He seemed to always be bored, losing passion in the things he had once loved, and preferring to spend his time lounging around instead of playing music like they used to do together.

Wonwoo pestered him constantly, acting childlike and making jokes, but none of it fazed Jihoon. He only stopped his attempts to stir Jihoon when he heard that stinging question:

“Is it alright…if I leave?”

Wonwoo stared at that man before him, whose sight was set only on the outside world and not in their small, rundown apartment. With a shaky composure, he managed to let out a hoarse, “Why?”

“I…think I’m in love with someone.”

Wonwoo’s mouth was dry, but he still swallowed nonetheless. “Wh-wh—”

“His name is Junhui—you know him, right?—the guy that performed at the club after us.” Jihoon smiled. “We got to talking, and I don’t know, it’s weird. We had this instant connection, and shit, why am I talking like this?” Jihoon was laughing.

As Jihoon was talking, his words weren’t able to reach Wonwoo’s ears. It had been a while since Wonwoo had seen that bright smile, and as he felt his heart chipping, he knew what had to be done.

“Leave.”

Jihoon stopped his chatters and looked at Wonwoo, surprise was evident on his face. “Y-you mean—”

“Just leave.”

\---

With only the timeworn bag from three years ago and an even more aged guitar, Jihoon walked out of Wonwoo’s life, and for a while, it didn’t register in Wonwoo’s mind that he was now just a lonely nineteen-year-old boy in the big city.

He didn’t realize this until he noticed Jihoon’s guitar wasn’t next to their bed, and he wished they had never left their boring little town.

Five years crept by slowly as Wonwoo moved through life doing the same old things he had once despised while he was growing up. He was no longer a child, so he realized with regret how he missed doing the old routines with his best friend and first love by his side, because at least then, the monotony was bearable in spite of how much they had both lamented.

Since that fateful day, he had heard nothing from the boy who walked out of his life, carrying along the music that had once brought them to Seoul. With only himself to support, Wonwoo took on odd jobs, often getting fired when he grew tired and just stopped showing up. It didn’t matter, because there was nothing great about living when you were empty inside.

\---

Wonwoo had decided to start calling any job he took on a temporary one, because after getting fired, or simply just quitting, for the umpteenth time, he knew they weren’t exactly a lifelong career, or even one to last for more than six months.

“So,” Wonwoo started, a slight drawl was evident in his voice, “you wanted a peach coffee cake alongside your caffè latte, uh, what’s your name?”

“Um,” the other man started, suddenly feeling a sense of invasiveness from the man behind the counter. “Junhui.”

“Right.” Wonwoo punched in the order, and then added under his breath, “What a weird order, you best friend slash boyfriend-stealing fruitcake who happened to show up at this café of all places in Seoul.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing.” Wonwoo flashed the obligated smile his employer often chastised him for not having. “Your order will be ready in a moment, sir. If you’ll stand over here, an employee will get your order for you.”

Junhui moved over hesitantly, feeling a sudden chill down his back.

“Next.” Wonwoo had a feeling this new job would last for a while.

\---

In spite of the same weird employee taking his order, Junhui still continued to frequent the café, ordering the same drink and a different companion dessert with his beverage.

“Um, Jihoon,” Junhui started one afternoon, gazing at his latte. “Do you smell hot pepper in this?”

Jihoon opened the lid, and stared at the red flakes floating atop. “Cool, new flavor?”

Junhui glared.

\---

Around the middle of the second month since Wonwoo had started working in the café, he noticed a familiar face accompany Junhui. Ducking under the counter, he uttered a quick, “Fuck!” before waddling into the kitchen.

“Chan ! Take the order outside!”

Chan looked through the small window in the middle of the door. “Don’t you always take that man’s order, hyung?”

“Yes, but I can’t today.”

“Why?”

Wonwoo fidgeted from his position on the floor. “I may have put odd stuff in his drinks before, and now he’s here with his boyfriend, who happens to be my old boyfriend, and it’s, fuck, just get out there, you brat!”

“…what’d you put in his drinks?”

“Hot pepper flakes, horseradish, mayonnaise, and—get out there, you jerk!”

Chan shrugged, and left to take the order. Wonwoo peeked from behind the door, managing to grasp only a few words, but he heard clearly what Junhui asked after placing his order, “Where’s the weird guy who usually manages the counter?”

Chan started to open his mouth to respond, but before he could get a word out, he could hear the kitchen door slamming opened, and Wonwoo stomping out with a stream of curses rolling off his tongue.

“Wonwoo!”

Oh, fuck, Wonwoo mentally face palmed as he turned to smile at Jihoon. “’Sup?”

“Am I done here, hyung?”

“Yes, yes you are, Chan,” Wonwoo answered wearily, watching from the corner of his eyes as Chan trudged back into the kitchen. As he looked at Jihoon’s piercing stare, his only thought was, “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!”

\---

“You’re an idiot,” Jihoon stated simply when he dragged Wonwoo to a nearby park.

“You’re a traitor,” Wonwoo retorted, and this time, he really did face palmed when he saw Jihoon’s confused face. He wailed pitifully, “You left me! Alone! For five fucking years! In a big city and—stop laughing at me!”

“Sorry, but,” Jihoon looked around awkwardly before finally stopping his gaze at his feet. “I just had to leave.”

“You were supposed to come back.”

“What?”

“Like that saying.”

“What saying?”

“‘If you love something, set it free, and if it’s meant to be, it’ll come back.’”

There was an awkward pause, before Jihoon finally found his voice, “Where’d you hear that corny saying?”

Wonwoo shuffled. “I worked in a book-store seven careers back.” Wonwoo waved off Jihoon’s perpetual blank stare. “Never mind, just, I’ll leave now. Go back to that wonderful, boyfriend of yours and—”

“He’s not my boyfriend anymore.”

Wonwoo was now the one with a confused face.

“We broke up two years ago. We’re just roommates now.”

Wonwoo’s face was a complete blank before he finally registered Jihoon’s words. “Really? Well, why didn’t you—oh, shit.”

“What?”

“I’ve been…sabotaging his drinks.”

Jihoon laughed obnoxiously, looking like he was on the verge of keeling over. “So you’re the weirdo Junhui was always talking about.” He straightened up, a conflicting expression passed by. “Damn.”

“What?”

“I think he has a crush on you.” Jihoon avoided Wonwoo’s sudden punches. “I’m serious, why else would he go back to a place that kept serving him weird crap?”

There was another awkward pause.

“I-I’ll just disappear back to my rat hole now.”

“Ah. Can I come along?”

\---

They’d return to the same rundown apartment from eight years earlier, and as Jihoon walked around admiring the old tidbits that were still left in place, he heard Wonwoo’s voice started hesitantly.

“What about Junhui?”

“I think he’s wanted to kick me out and get a new roommate.”

“Me?”

“Ye—well, maybe. He seems to also have a thing for this guy, Minghao.”

Wonwoo scoffed. “What a slut.”

“And well, aren’t you a little bitch yourself.” Jihoon grinned.

“…Play a song, Jihoon.”

“I don’t have my guitar with me.”

Wonwoo fidgeted in his place. “I-I have one.” Wonwoo retrieved a guitar case from inside his small closet. Opening the clasps, he pulled out a dated guitar, mumbling awkwardly to try to avoid his embarrassing explanation.

“Where’d you get this?” Jihoon sounded and looked like a kid in a toy store. “This is nice, really. Where’d you get it?”

“I, um, a while back.” Wonwoo sat down next to Jihoon. “I saw it in a pawn shop, so I wanted to buy it. It reminded me of you, a little, I guess.”

Jihoon whistled in admiration. “Must have cost a lot.”

“It was the only job that I took that lasted for six months. I survived on cereal.”

Jihoon laughed, and then he quieted down to retune the instrument. He played a note. “Want to…get back together?”

Wonwoo huffed. “Just what kind of idiot do you think I am—”

Wonwoo’s protest was silenced by a kiss. When they had pulled apart, Jihoon grinned. “You’re my idiot.”

“And you called me corny.”

\---

Jihoon had played the same song from the time they had boarded that bus, but Wonwoo refused to sing along. When Jihoon looked at him confused, Wonwoo smiled. “I’ve learned…to appreciate what I have.”

“Want to write a new song then?”

Wonwoo kissed him as a response, knowing this silly love song of theirs was all that he needed

 

**Author's Note:**

> hyolyn is so hot. anyway thanks for reading !! kudos are much appreciated :))


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